My Meal Plan this Week

A meal plan is not only a great way to save a little money it’s also, generally speaking, a necessity. To some degree everyone meal plans, even if it’s an hour before the meal needs to be eaten. After 17 years of meal planning for my family my process is pretty robotic. Today I’ll share a quick run down of how I plan my family’s weekly meals and I’ll give you a peek at what we’ve got cookin’ this week!

There are so many tools available these days for creating a weekly menu for your family. But I still like building it the old fashioned way. Good ‘ol pencil and paper and some online help from Pinterest.

Meal Planning Tips

I have a few really quick tips for easy routine meal planning each week. Typically if I meal plan without major distraction, I can build the menu and create the grocery list in 30-45 minutes.

Set a regular time aside each week to meal plan for the week ahead.
Don’t designate specific days for specific meals unless you have to structure it more rigidly.
Have your planner handy with the weekly schedule plotted for your reference. During certain times of the year I even check the weather when I menu plan.
Jot your menu down in your planner or on a piece of paper you can keep handy.
Grab cookbooks, your computer, recipe cards, or a binder of recipes to use as a reference.
Check out my blog post here for more menu planning ideas.

*This is the planner I’m currently using.

*This is my favorite personalized planner, with a menu planning add-ons that can be added if desired.